Surge in women farmers change face of agriculture

Role increases as wives outlive husbands

Mar. 23, 2013

Linda Krsnak walks into one of her high tunnels on her produce farm near Chester. Krsnak is one of a growing number of women in the U.S. who are the principal operators of a farm or ranch. / Melissa Sue Gerrits / Argus Leader

Written by

Christopher Doering

Fast facts

• In the 2007 Census of Agriculture report, women farm operators increased 19 percent from 2002, far outpacing the 7 percent increase in the number of farmers overall. • In South Dakota, about 8 percent of operations were overseen primarily by a woman. • The census allows a farm to have multiple operators. Women were the principal operator, the person in charge of day-to-day operations, on 14 percent of farms and ranches, compared to 11 percent five years earlier. • National FFA Organization is made up of 39 percent women in South Dakota today, compared to just 15 percent in 1988. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National FFA Organization.

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WASHINGTON — Linda Krsnak was weary of the male-dominated culture she was accustomed to, growing up on a farm near Wentworth during the 1960s and 1970s, and knew she had to leave.

Women weren’t supposed to be working the land, and to Krsnak, she felt like an outsider looking in.

But decades later, drawn back by the itch of digging in dirt and harvesting her own crops, she’s now operating a successful produce business with her husband and finding that women are being embraced differently today in agriculture.

“Sometimes it just takes a while for things to fall into place,” said Krsnak, 56, who grows more than 300 varieties of produce including lettuce, spinach, squash and potatoes at Linda’s Gardens in Chester with her husband. “I changed. People’s attitudes changed, and maybe I just got to the point where it just didn’t matter what other people thought.”

For decades, women were viewed as the supportive behind-the-scene sidekicks to their husbands and sons, who were planting seed, fixing equipment and feeding livestock. In most cases, they were depended on to keep the house running and make sure the farm’s paperwork was up to date and the bills were paid.

Today, things have changed. Now, more women are being thrust into farming as they outlive their fathers or husbands, leaving them with the responsibility of deciding what to do with land that in many cases has been in the family for decades.

Many more women are making the decision to enter agriculture on their own accord with a focus largely on smaller livestock operations, organic crops or farms that grow fruit and produce for the local community.

In the U.S. Agriculture Department’s 2007 Census of Agriculture report, the government found women farm operators increased 19 percent from 2002, far outpacing the 7 percent increase in the number of farmers overall. The government census allows a farm to have multiple operators. Women were the principal operator, the person in charge of day-to-day operations, on 14 percent of farms and ranches, compared to 11 percent five years earlier.

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South Dakota trailed the national average with about 8 percent of operations primarily overseen by a woman.

The government is updating its agricultural census later this year, and the number of women involved in farming is expected to be “much higher,” said Kathleen Merrigan, who was USDA’s second most powerful official before resigning earlier this month. She was in charge of overseeing the daily operations of the department.

As more women enter the male-dominated field, they’ll be managing an even bigger share of farmland, especially in the agriculture-intensive Midwest. As more farmland changes hands, those figures are expected to grow. University researchers have estimated that more than 200 million acres of farmland in the United States will change hands by 2027, with women potentially owning a majority of the land.

That’s big news for the growing number of women in South Dakota and across the country who are members of the National FFA Organization, which first allowed females to join its ranks in 1969. The group, better known by its former name, the Future Farmers of America, is made up of 39 percent women in South Dakota today, compared to just 15 percent in 1988.

Programs

During USDA’s annual outlook conference last month near Washington, Merrigan saw firsthand evidence that, while women are making progress in agriculture, many don’t feel they are receiving the attention that reflects the more active role they are playing.

For the first time, the USDA held a 30-minute session to allow women at the mostly male-attended event to network. In the room, USDA set up two white “idea boards” asking women what they wanted to see at next year’s conference. One respondent suggested having “more women as speakers throughout the agenda” while another proposed a paper “on the important role of women in agriculture.”

Merrigan said she had expressed concern to conference organizers because a poster touting the event featured only one woman on it: her.

“I think we are making progress, but it’s time to accelerate,” Merrigan said. “It just takes time to shift everybody’s thinking to the realities of today. We just need to get everybody out of thinking about things in the same old way. It’s not just about women; it’s about the changing demographics of this country.”

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To do that, dozens of groups that focus on helping women break through the so-called “grass ceiling” of agriculture have sprung up across the United States. Several have limited their membership to only women after observing that women, especially older ones, were more outspoken and willing to ask questions without men present.

A popular program called Annie’s Project teaches classes in 27 states, including South Dakota, to help foster better problem-solving, record-keeping and decision-making skills among farm women. The classes regularly fill up.

Another group, the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN), founded by Denise O’Brien in 1997, hosts meetings to give advice and allow women to ask questions and talk about their experiences on the farm.

In Washington, the USDA, which in the past has been accused of discrimination by some women farmers and ranchers for denying them loans and other assistance, has undertaken a series of initiatives to reach out to females. The USDA has developed an outreach program to increase the number of women owning and operating profitable farms and agriculture-related businesses.

The department also recently has had women in a number of high-profile positions. In addition to Merrigan, the USDA’s undersecretary for food safety and its chief of staff are just a few of the women who have served in its leadership ranks.

“Women are starting to rise up through the ranks and be recognized,” said Ann Sorensen, research director for American Farmland Trust, a group focused on protecting the country’s farm and ranch land. “Although within the state commodity groups and state farm bureaus there is very, very little representation, embarrassingly little representation by women, but I think that is going to change.”

Danelle Myer, a fifth-generation farmer in Harrison County, in west-central Iowa, hasn’t let the challenges of both starting a farm or being a woman in agriculture deter her. Myer, who started with a half-acre of land, is poised to expand her profitable business to five acres within a few years.

For the first time, the organic vegetable farmer is planning to hire part-time workers this year to help her pick tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and potatoes, and do other work on the farm.

When she started out, Myer, now 41, said she didn’t know what local farmers would think of her trying her hand at organic farming while they tended to their thousand-plus acre corn and soybean operations.

“I’ve actually been . . . very welcomed by my community,” Myer said. “I feel like those older, white men are admiring women like me because they know how hard the work is. Being female, I don’t think, has been a barrier to me in my situation. I feel like it makes me different and people appreciate what I’m doing.”